


but we have monsters inside of us

by pinklesbian



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blood Drinking, Established Relationship, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Insecure Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Good Boyfriend, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Vampires, vampire broganes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-10 01:39:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12288504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinklesbian/pseuds/pinklesbian
Summary: how long can keith kogane keep a very big secret from his oblivious boyfriend





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> title is from "monsters" by missio
> 
> please lmk if you see any typos or spelling mistakes, etc!

“Keith? Why do you have your hood up? It’s like 85 degrees.” 

“I have sensitive skin,” the boy in question mumbles as he locks his door behind him. “You know that.” 

Lance snorts in response. “Maybe you should start carrying a parasol instead.” 

“I would, but you’d make fun of me.” 

Lance just rolls his eyes and grabs for his boyfriend’s hand. 

They walk the rest of the way to their destination—some greasy pizza place where they’re meeting with Hunk and Pidge—in relative silence, save for the times when Lance feels the need to point out a cute dog or squirrel he sees. Lance knows Keith isn’t the biggest fan of going out to eat, so he’s really happy when he gets his boyfriend to agree to do so. 

When they arrive, their friends are already seated at a booth along the wall, and Pidge stands up and waves them over. They both slide into the open side of the booth, and Keith lowers the hood of his sweatshirt. 

“Dude,” Hunk starts, staring at him incredulously, “aren’t you sweating?” 

Pidge sips her soda through a straw and looks across the table at Keith. “Yeah, you don’t need to go so far to prove to us that you’re super emo. We get it. All black with no cloud cover? You’re gonna die.”

“What’s more goth than literally dying, though?” Hunk adds thoughtfully. This sparks a debate as to whether or not emo and goth are interchangeable and everybody forgets that they were criticizing Keith’s clothing choices. 

Soon enough, the server (who happens to be Pidge’s older brother, Matt) stops by with a stack of menus and a request for Pidge to stop yelling at her friends. She flips him off, but Hunk thanks him. He gives a small two-finger salute before walking back into the kitchen. 

Lance hums absentmindedly as he skims over the menu. Something catches his eye in the appetizers section.

“ _What_ , garlic knots? Hell yeah, can we get those?” He looks up at his friends, not seeming to notice Keith going stiff beside him. 

“Not unless you want to kill your boyfriend?” Hunk says, giving Lance a weird look. “He’s like, super allergic to garlic?” 

“Aw dunk. Sorry Keith, totally slipped my mind. I guess I _do_ like you more than I like fun-shaped garlic bread…” He frowns at the menu, looking for something else. Keith relaxes, but continues to worry his bottom lip with his teeth. 

Eventually they all decide what to order, after double-checking that nothing contains the aforementioned seasoning. They get through the meal with zero deadly reactions, allergic or otherwise. 

Hunk leaves first, stating that he’s got a paper to write for his calculus class. (“What kind of professor assigns papers for a math class? That’s insane.”) Keith and Lance stick around to talk to Pidge for a bit longer before Lance decides he needs a nap and they leave as well. Keith asks Pidge if she wants to walk home with them, but she tells them she’s waiting for Matt to finish his shift and catching a ride with him. 

They wave goodbye to her, and Keith pulls his hood back up over his head. Lance groans. 

“You’re so extra. I’m embarrassed to be seen with you,” he complains as he pushes the door open and steps outside.

Keith huffs in indignation. “ _I’m_ extra? Me? I’m the one who’s extra?” 

Lance just smiles and laces their fingers together again. Keith scowls. “You’re so annoying.”

“I love you too, babe.” Keith purses his lips and looks away. 

The walk to Lance’s apartment is silent in the same way that the walk to the restaurant had been, except this time Lance points out a stray cat and a funny looking bird as well. 

When they get to the apartment building, they take the elevator to the third floor because a certain Cuban boy is too sleepy to walk up the stairs and is not ashamed of it. He hums again as he pulls his keys from his pocket and sets to work on unlocking the door. He can never remember which way to turn the key. Keith watches his struggle fondly.

When the door is finally opened, Lance immediately goes and flops onto the couch. He’s toeing off his sneakers when he realizes Keith is still in the hallway. He raises an eyebrow. “Everything okay?” 

Keith shifts his weight from foot to foot nervously, gnawing his lip and avoiding eye contact with Lance. “Yeah, I, just, uh. I mean… Could you…”

Realization registers on Lance’s face. “Oh, right. Sorry.” He finishes kicking his shoes off.“Please come inside.” 

Keith relaxes and steps into the apartment, closing the door behind him. He bends down to unlace his boots and pull them off. “I’m sorry,” he mutters, still not looking at his boyfriend. “I know I’m annoying.” 

Lance laughs from the couch. “If anything is annoying about you, that’s not it. Your haircut? Maybe. You putting your freakishly cold hands under my shirt? Definitely. But stuff like that? That’s not annoying.” 

Keith nods, a little uncertainly. Lance smiles at him and scoots toward the back of the couch, as an invitation for Keith to join him. For this, Keith doesn’t need to be asked. He lays beside Lance, and the taller boy tangles their legs together and slings an arm around his waist. 

Lance sighs happily and closes his eyes. Keith does too, just now realizing how tired he is. They fall asleep, feeling happy and warm and loved.

 

 

They both wake up to a shrill ringing noise, and Keith accidentally rolls off the couch. 

“Change your fucking ringtone,” Lance groans, throwing an arm over his face. 

Keith grumbles out something that doesn’t sound even remotely like actual words as he crawls toward the kitchen, where he left his phone on the counter. He pulls himself into a standing position and swipes to answer the phone without checking who’s calling.

“What.” He says, voice dripping with all the venom of a young adult who’s been woken from a nap. 

Evidently, it’s Shiro calling. Keith answers all his questions with clipped, one- or two-word replies. “Yes. No. With Lance. Sleeping. Okay. Yes. Bye—No. Last week. Yeah. Okay. Bye.” He hangs up and runs a hand through his bedhead. Lance is looking at him curiously. 

“That was my brother. He was wondering where I am.” He squints at his phone again. “We’ve been asleep for three hours.” 

Lance barks out a laugh. “That explains why I feel like I’ve entered another plane of reality. Jeez. Do you have to leave?” 

Keith sighs. “Yeah, I should. You know, one of these days I’d like to actually hang out while we’re both conscious.” 

“I need to nap after I eat pizza, Keith. I’m only human.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took SO long to put up... i've been really overwhelmed (and annoyed about season 4 lmfao) and the idea of even trying to write this gave me so much anxiety but i really wanted to put it up before halloween sooo... sorry if it's not the best :( but thank you for being patient with me and thank you for your kind comments on the first chapter! again, pls let me know if you see any typos or spelling mistakes, and happy halloween :)

“I’m home,” Keith calls out lazily, shutting the door behind him and tossing his keys into the bowl because Shiro always insists he does so. 

There is no response, but he wasn’t expecting one. Shiro is definitely asleep by now. 

Now that he’s in his own home, he allows himself to relax, and he realizes just how exhausted and achey he is. He’s surprised Lance hadn’t made any comments about the dark circles under his eyes today. Maybe he’s just accepted that they’ll always be there, that Keith is always tired. 

He groans out loud as he shuffles toward the kitchen, hoping Shiro has brought home what he was supposed to from work today. Because nobody is around to tell him not to, he groans all the way until he swing the door of the fridge open and sees what he’s looking for. 

He grabs one of the four dark pouches and starts rummaging around in the drawers for a pair of scissors. When he finds one, he snips a corner off of the pouch and makes quick work of drinking it without thinking about it. When it’s empty, his head has stopped pounding, but there’s the same uncomfortable feeling he always gets afterwards. He lets his eyes scan the label.

_B Rh negative._

He should definitely be used to it, but he still can’t shake how wrong it feels. 

Setting the bag on the counter, telling himself he’ll throw it away in a minute, he pulls his phone out of his pocket to text Lance and let him know he got home safe. Because Lance worries. 

Keith smiles at the 12 heart emojis Lance sends in reply. He’s about to put his phone away again when it buzzes a second, and then a third, time. 

 

**_2017 Sexiest Man Alive: ok so i know we just saw each other but would it be cool if i came over tonight?_ **

**_2017 Sexiest Man Alive: :)???_ **

 

Keith chews his lip, thinking. Shiro is going out with his coworkers after his shift tonight, so the house would be empty. 

 

**_Yeah, sure. 7:00 okay?_ **

 

**_2017 Sexiest Man Alive: yeah!! can we watch the force awakens_ **

 

Keith rolls his eyes (affectionately).

* * *

 

 

Lance arrives promptly at 7:00, and dramatically presents Keith with a blu-ray copy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He makes himself at home, popping the disc into the DVD player and flopping onto Keith’s couch. Keith smiles, shaking his head, and maneuvers his boyfriend around until he’s sitting on one end of the couch with Lance’s head in his lap. 

Approximately ten minutes into the movie, Lance complains of hunger and states that he’s going to the kitchen to make popcorn. He refuses when Keith offers to do it, telling him to instead keep watching the movie, because Keith hasn’t seen it since it came out and Lance has already watched it twice in the last month. Lance ambles into the kitchen, and soon enough Keith starts to hear the soft _pop pop pop_ from the microwave. 

He also hears the sound of the fridge being opened, and he tries to think of whether or not they have anything good to drink in there. He and Shiro really need to go grocery shopping…

“Hey, Keith?” Lance calls from the kitchen suddenly. Keith pauses the movie. 

“Yeah?” 

“I have a question.” 

Keith sighs, getting up from the couch and plodding into the kitchen. “Yes?” 

“Why do you have this?” Keith first takes in Lance’s raised eyebrow, then looks at what he’s holding, which is most certainly a pint of blood. 

Keith’s mind goes blank and he cannot think of a single rational excuse. What he says is: “Uh…” 

“Oh wow, dude,” Lance starts, both eyebrows shooting up now, “I was kinda just messing with you. I thought maybe Shiro had it for some reason? But now you’re making me extremely suspicious.” He seems to realize he’s still holding a bag of human blood, and he sets it back on the shelf it came from. “What gives?” 

Keith blinks, still unable to think of any reasonable English words to fill this silence with. He wishes Shiro was here. 

“Keith. If you’re a serial killer, you have to tell me, or else it’s entrapment.”

Now Keith has a response. “That’s not what entrapment is,” he says, rolling his eyes. “And if I was a serial killer, why would I have blood in a medical bag? Why wouldn’t it be in like mason jars or something equally sketchy?” 

“Okay, so why _do_ you have a bag of blood in your kitchen fridge?” 

“I don’t know!” Awesome. Very convincing. 

“Why are you being so weird?” Lance asks, furrowing his brow, as he closes the door of the refrigerator. 

“I’m not! You’re being weird!” Not suspicious. Very eloquent. 

Keith runs a hand over his face and goes to take a glass out of one of the cabinets. He fills it with water from the sink and takes a drink, avoiding looking at Lance’s face. Lance sighs and moves beside Keith, pulling himself up to sit on the counter. 

“Dude, it was a simple question which should probably have a definite answer, is all I’m saying. I mean, what kind of—wait, what’s this?” 

Keith follows Lance’s line of vision and feels his heart rate pick up, and then stop as Lance reaches over and to pick up what he’s looking at. If he couldn’t explain an intact bag of blood, how the hell is supposed to explain an empty one? 

God, he’s so stupid. Why did he leave that there? He knew Lance was coming over. He knew Shiro would have yelled at him to clean up his mess. Why is he so bad at completing basic tasks? 

Lance turns to face Keith, some unknown emotion in his eyes. “Is this real?” he asks. 

Instead of saying “No, it’s totally fake, ha-ha! It was a prank all along,” what Keith says is:

“Why would it be fake?” 

Jesus Christ. This is going so badly. 

“Did you…” Lance starts, slowly. “Did you drink this?” Keith feels like he’s about to pass out. The worst part is that he can’t tell whether Lance expects him to say _yes_ or _no_.  
  
Evidently Lance takes Keith’s hesitance as a firm _yes_. “Oh my god? Keith, what the hell?” 

Keith frantically searches his brain for an answer. For a plausible denial. For anything. 

He says, “I’m a vampire.”

Holy shit. What the fuck. That is not what he meant to say. 

There is a long, painful silence that follows. Lance’s eyes seem to glaze over, which Keith knows means he’s thinking very hard. Keith gnaws on his lip, and realizes that in his extreme stress, his fangs have come out. Perfect. 

Lance blinks, finally, and inhales, as if to say something, but pauses when he notices Keith’s teeth. 

“Ha, holy crow, you’re really serious, aren’t you?” Keith stays silent, just staring at Lance with wide, horrified eyes. “Okay, I believe you,” Lance says, nodding. 

Keith stays quiet, so Lance continues. “I mean, I guess it makes sense. Pale, emo, allergic to garlic. Can’t cross moving water, right? That’s why you never come with us when I invite you onto Hunk’s parents’ boat. Dang, do you sleep during the day? Am I like, always keeping you up?” He frowns. “You could’ve told me sooner.” 

“What!” Keith exclaims, finally breaking out of his silent panic. “How was I supposed to do that! ‘Hey Lance, my boyfriend whom I love and don’t want to lose, I’m actually a bloodthirsty monster?’” 

Lance just grins. “Okay, fair point. But you must have forgotten the fact that I also love you, and I would never doubt you, honeybunch. You say crazy stuff all the time, like when you told me The Phantom Menace is the best Star Wars movie.” Keith groans, holding his face in his hands. 

“Why aren’t you mad?” he says, slightly muffled. “I’ve been lying you to, and I could hurt you, and it’s gross and weird and creepy.

“Hey,” Lance says softly. He reaches over and tugs at Keith’s arms so he can look at his face. Keith lowers his hands reluctantly, looking up at Lance. “I know I don’t totally get what’s going on right now, but you’re still you, right? And, not to be gay, but I’m super in love with you. So this doesn’t change anything.” His eyes and his smile are so loving and kind that Keith feels tears well up in his eyes. 

“Aww, babe!” Lance coos, and he places his hands on either side of Keith’s head so he can lean down and kiss him. 

Keith reaches up to scrub at his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he says. “It’s just not something we really do, you know? Um. It’s not because I don’t trust you, or anything like that. Because I do. I love you.” 

Lance grins wide. “I know. I love you too. Now, what is this _we_ business?” He gasps. “Is Shiro a vampire too? I swear, I’m dreaming right now. 13-year-old me would be flipping out right now if he knew this was going to be his life.” He gasps again. “Is the reason you never take selfies with me because you won’t show up in pictures?” 

Keith makes a face. “Don’t be stereotypical. Of course I show up in pictures. You have pictures of me. They’re just… a little out of focus.” 

“Jeepers, my boyfriend is so mysterious and cool. How did I get so lucky?” 

Keith laughs softly, leaning forward to rest his head on Lance’s chest. 

 

Okay. Things might turn out to be fine after all. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i will try to upload the second chapter........... soon............ lmk if you have any vampire traits you want me to include lol


End file.
